Nevada Museum of Art facts for kids
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| Established | 1931 |
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| Location | Reno, Nevada |
| Type | Art museum |
| Collection size | 1900 |
The Nevada Museum of Art is a cool art museum located in Reno, Nevada. You can find it at 160 West Liberty Street. It's the only art museum in Nevada that's officially recognized by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM).
This museum has a special way of showing art. It focuses on how people interact with the land and how we can protect nature. This theme runs through all its collections and exhibits. In 2003, the museum moved into a brand new building. It was designed by a famous architect named Will Bruder.
Contents
What Art Can You See?
The museum's permanent collection has over 2,000 artworks. These pieces were created from the 1800s to today. The art is grouped into four main areas. All these areas share a common idea: how humans connect with natural places, buildings, and even virtual worlds. This way of organizing art helps you see different ideas about how we interact with our surroundings.
Ann Wolfe, who helps choose the art, says that the images show how the Earth's surface tells a story. It can show some of humanity's greatest achievements. But it also shows our biggest mistakes.
Modern Art Collection
The museum has a growing collection of modern art. This includes works by artists from all over the world. You can see paintings, drawings, photos, sculptures, and digital art. These pieces are made by artists who are alive today. They help us understand modern society in new ways. The museum looks for art that shows how artists interact with nature, cities, and digital spaces. Some famous artists in this collection include Tim Hawkinson, Andrea Zittel, Petah Coyne, and Lordy Rodriguez.
The Altered Landscape: Carol Franc Buck Collection
This is the museum's biggest collection. It features modern landscape photographs. Since the early 1990s, this collection has focused on how we use land and how landscapes are changing. The photos show many different artists and styles. But they all share two main ideas:
- They want people to talk about how human actions affect nature.
- They move away from old ideas of perfect, untouched nature.
In 1998, the Carol Franc Buck Foundation helped the museum buy more art for this collection. In 2011, a big book about The Altered Landscape was published. It even won an award in 2012 for being one of the best art museum books! This book features 150 images by 100 photographers. These were chosen from over 900 photos the museum has collected since the 1970s.
Art of the Greater West Collection
This collection is named after Robert S. and Dorothy J. Keyser. It looks at art from a very wide area called the "Greater West." This region stretches from Alaska all the way to Patagonia in South America. It also includes Australia and the western United States. While the collection started with art from the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin areas, it now connects different cultures and art styles from this huge Western region.
The E.L. Wiegand Collection
This collection focuses on the idea of the "work ethic" in American art. It includes paintings that show different kinds of work, workers, or workplaces. Some important artists in this collection from the 1800s and 1900s include Carl Oscar Borg, Lorser Feitelson, Lovell Birge Harrison, Helen Lundeberg, Guy Pène du Bois, Elsie Palmer Payne, Jacob Getlar Smith, Moses Soyer, and Grandma Moses.
Center for Art + Environment
The Center for Art + Environment started in 2009. It's a special part of the museum that studies how people interact with nature, buildings, and digital worlds. This Center is like the museum's research department. Its archives hold over 50 collections with 12,000 items! These items represent work from more than 500 artists from all seven continents.
Some important archives include materials from "Earthworks" artists like Michael Heizer, Walter De Maria, and Lita Albuquerque. It also has work from environmental architects and programs like the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI). The CA+E is the only research center in the world focused on art and the environment.
The Center for Art + Environment also hosts a big conference every three years. It's called the Art + Environment Conference. The first one was in 2008. Speakers included artists like Vito Acconci and Katie Holten, and experts like Matthew Coolidge.
The second conference in 2011 and the third in 2014 also brought together many artists and thinkers. They shared ideas about art, nature, and how we shape our world. Some of the many speakers included Edward Burtynsky, Chris Jordan, Bruce Sterling, and Maya Lin.
Scholastic Art Awards
The museum helps young artists through the Scholastic Art Awards program. It gives secondary school students from northern Nevada a place to show their amazing artwork. The museum also has a newly updated E.L. Cord museum school. This school offers different art classes to help students and teachers improve their art skills.
